Norwegian eighth seed Casper Ruud will be feeling far less pressure in his French Open semi-final against Marin Cilic on Friday after his quarter final victory over Danish teenager Holger Rune on Wednesday.

Ruud became the first tennis player of his country to reach the last four of any grand slam when he beat Rune 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 and end the sensational run for the 19-year-old who was playing his first French Open.

Rune had eliminated fourth seed and last year’s finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas in the previous round and is tipped, along with fellow teen Carlos Alcaraz, as the future stars of the sport, but it was Ruud who had been the favourite.

The 33-year-old Cilic, a US Open winner back in 2014, has more experience than the 23-year-old Norwegian on the big stage, having also reached the finals at Wimbledon in 2017 and the Australian Open in 2018.

Cilic’s run to the last four, however, has been surprising, even for his next opponent following the Croatian’s victory earlier on Wednesday over Russian seventh seed Andrey Rublev 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (10-2) in a final super tie-break.

“That’s going to be a tough match,” Ruud said. “He seems like he is playing some of this best tennis of his life at the moment here at Roland Garros,” Ruud said. “He has reached the semi-final and has been playing so well on the way to the semi-final.”

Rudd, however, said the pressure would be lower than against the up-and-coming Rune.

Cilic joined an elite group of active men’s players to have reached the last four at all the grand slams as the world No. 23 advanced to his first Roland Garros semi-final.

Cilic joined Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray as the only active players to have made the semis at all the majors.